I have been to India

Yes. I have been to India. Like… ’bout a week ago.

I’ve actually put in some real thinky-time on this as to whether or not I’d ever been there, and I’m pretty damned sure I haven’t. That probably sounds like an absurd statement, but there was a brief time in my life where I traveled quite a bit. Most of that travel was professional and most of the places I visited during that time either don’t count as a visit or just barely do. Years ago, I learned that saying you visited a place when you never left the airport is the mark of a real fuckin’ new guy. Or real fuckin’ asshole. Probably both. At most, you can count that as a “passed through”, but I think the phrase isn’t very honest when applied to a layover. Well… I guess if the layover is long enough and you get to leave the airport for longer than a meal, shower, and smirkoff in a hotel, then I think it’s fair to consider it as more significant than typical layovers. Working travel can be fun or it can be a nightmare. I suppose that’s true of any travel, but I think that business travel has the highest chance of landing in the range between disappointing and terrible. Sorry for the pun. They just kinda fly out of me sometimes.

There was a point to that. My trip to India was for business. So it wasn’t a fuck-off pass through an airport. But even though I’d been there a few weeks, I feel like saying I have been to India is maybe not totally honest. I mean, it was a fantastic opportunity and I am infinitely thankful for it. But it was for business. When you go for business, especially when business is already busy and relies too heavily on you, it is difficult to enjoy your trip. I was there for about three weeks but, in earnest, I’d say the total hours I spent actually touring the beautiful country would add up to four, maybe five days. I spent my arrival weekend mostly stuck in the hotel, trying to fix things back in the ‘States with an underpowered laptop while in my hotel room. On the plus side, the hotel was a 5-star and it lived up to every star. I mean, sure the room itself wasn’t great but… look, I’ve been in a lot of hotels. I find the rooms are usually at least a little shitty, no matter how nice the hotel itself. I’ve developed a bit of a theory about this, which I could probably spend some real length diving into some other day. The long and short of it is that the rooms suck a little because they can suck a little. Not to say hotels are deliberately being cheap, but rather there isn’t really a need for top-of-the-line anything. I want a pretty decent bed with clean and comfy sheets, a decent internet connection, and a decent shower with towels I feel okay about drying my balls off with. Really don’t give a shit about the quality of the TV. Don’t care if the paint is shit.

Anyway, I have some pictures from India. I have some more thoughts about it, but it’s almost 3 AM and I gotta get the fuck to bed. I don’t know. Laterz, yo.